The present invention relates to the field of vehicle devices, and, more particularly, to a tracking and alerting system for a vehicle.
Motor vehicles, such as passenger cars, trucks, busses, fleet vehicles, etc. are widely used and knowing the locations of such vehicles is often desired. For example, should a vehicle be stolen, it would be beneficial to know the vehicle""s location so that authorities could be promptly and accurately directed to retrieve the vehicle. Indeed, the tracking system could plot the getaway path of the thief.
For a company with hired drivers, it may desirable to know the driver""s whereabouts during the course of the day. Similarly, a rental car agency or other fleet operator, for example, may wish to know the whereabouts of its fleet of vehicles.
It may also be desirable to track the location of a vehicle as it is used throughout the course of a normal day. For parents of younger or older drivers, for example, knowledge of the vehicle""s location may provide some assurance that the driver is at designated locations and following a prescribed route.
A number of patents disclose various systems and approaches to tracking vehicles. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,844 discloses a tracking system including a control center and a mobile unit installed in the vehicle. The mobile unit may send security warnings to the command center via a wireless transceiver. Position information for the vehicle is determined using a GPS receiver at the vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,043 discloses a similar system which may send one or more preprogrammed telephone messages to a user when away from the vehicle. The user may remotely access location information or cause certain commands to be carried out by entering a personal identification number (PIN).
The widespread availability and use of the Internet has prompted a number of vehicle tracking systems to also make use of the Internet. For example, TelEvoke, Inc. proposed such a system in combination with Clifford Electronics. The system was to provide notification, control and tracking services via the telephone or the Internet. Users could be notified via phone, e-mail, or pager of events such as a car alarm being triggered. Users could control the vehicle remote devices via phone, web, or PDA such as unlocking car doors. Additionally, users could track TelEvoke-enabled vehicles on the Internet or via the telephone. An Internet map could be viewed by the user showing the actual and prior vehicle locations. TelEvoke offered its services via a centralized fully automated Network Operations Center. To reduce the communications costs, it was proposed to use the control channel of the cellular telephone network.
Many conventional tracking units are also used for security functions, such as notification of the user that there is a theft of the vehicle in progress or other event. Some systems notify multiple users for such events. Unfortunately, notifying a plurality of users may be undesirable as it increases system costs. In addition, of the multiple users notified, some may be unable to respond.
In view of the foregoing background it is therefore an object of the invention to provide a tracking system and related methods which is more likely to be able to successfully alert a user and/or which provides more useful alert information.
This and other objects, features and advantages in accordance with the invention are provided by a tracking system including a vehicle tracking unit and a monitoring station communicating therewith. The vehicle tracking unit preferably comprises a vehicle position determining device, a wireless communications device, and a controller connected to the wireless communications device and the vehicle position determining device. The controller preferably cooperates with the wireless communications device to send an alert message. Moreover, the monitoring station may comprise a user interface for generating a sequence of alert message notifications based upon receiving the alert message sent from the vehicle tracking unit, and for canceling any remaining alert message notification based upon a cancellation command response from a user having already received the alert message notification. Accordingly, if the user may be reached at different telephone numbers or different users are desirably notified of the alert, the present invention can make the notifications efficiently and without making unnecessary notifications.
The system may provide any of a number of very useful alerts. For example, the alert message sent from the vehicle tracking unit may comprise at least one of an vehicle stolen alert message, and a vehicle alarm sounding alert message. The alert message may be one a vehicle speeding alert message, and a vehicle acceleration alert message. In addition, the alert message may comprise an unauthorized remote transmitter alert message. Also, the alert message may be at least one of a low vehicle battery alert message, and a device malfunction alert message.
The speeding alert may be based upon exceeding a speed threshold for greater than a certain time, which may be user selectable. The acceleration alert may also be useful as such is also indicative of aggressive driving along with the speeding alert. The unauthorized remote transmitter alert increases overall security since a user will be notified if a would-be thief learns an unauthorized transmitter to operate the controller.
The vehicle position determining device may comprise a Global Positioning System (GPS) device. The wireless communications device may comprise a cellular telephone communications device, such as operating over the control channel, for example. The user interface of the monitoring station may comprise an Internet interface, and/or a telephone network interface.
A method aspect of the invention is for operating a vehicle tracking system comprising a vehicle tracking unit and a monitoring station communicating therewith. The vehicle tracking unit may include a vehicle position determining device, a wireless communications device, and a controller connected to the wireless communications device and the vehicle position determining device. The method preferably comprises using the controller cooperating with the wireless communications device to send an alert message, and using the monitoring station for generating a sequence of alert message notifications based upon receiving the alert message sent from the vehicle tracking unit, and for canceling any remaining alert message notification of the sequence based upon a cancellation command response from a user having already received the alert message notification.